STEPHANIE COSENTINO, Ph.D.
Scientific Advisor
Stephanie Cosentino is Associate Professor of Neuropsychology in the Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the Department of Neurology, and Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). Dr. Cosentino earned her B.A. in Psychology from Georgetown University in 1998 and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Drexel University in 2004. She subsequently joined the Taub Institute at CUMC as a postdoctoral fellow, and was later appointed to the Department of Neurology faculty in 2008 upon receiving the Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award in Aging to study the deterioration of self-awareness in Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Cosentino’s research program integrates methods from clinical neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive psychology to study how cognition and self-awareness deteriorate in the course of neurodegenerative diseases, and to elucidate the consequences of impaired self-awareness for patient quality of life and decision making. Most recently, Dr. Cosentino has expanded the focus of her research program to understand the factors that influence self-awareness in healthy older adults, with particular attention to the phenomenon of subjective cognitive decline. Dr. Cosentino’s work seeks to dissociate the types of subjective cognitive concerns that reflect typical aging, underlying disease, or characteristics of the individual related to mood, personality, or belief systems. Dr. Cosentino has published over 80 peer-reviewed publications, as well as several book chapters on topics related to cognition and self-awareness in older adults.